View From History: Ever Taxing

Starting in 1918, the date for filing the annual federal income tax was set…

February 20, 2014|By Bob Englehart

As part of our 250th celebration, I'll be posting selected historical cartoons from The Courant's files every Thursday. Today's is a syndicated cartoon by Roy Justus of the Minneapolis Star. Henry McNulty, who is our informal historic authority on all things Courant, will provide the explanation for the cartoons.

Today's explanation:Starting in 1918, the date for filing the annual federal income tax was set at March 15. "Beware the Ides of March" was the quip for several decades. But in 1955, the Internal Revenue Service, claiming it wanted to "spread out the peak workload," switched the date to April 15, where it is now. This cartoon depicts a hapless taxpayer struggling to get through a mountain of tax-related paperwork despite the brand-new extension of the deadline by a month.